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The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. The picture was directed by John Guillermin, with Allen himself directing the action sequences. Plot Doug Roberts, Architect, returns from a long vacation to find work nearly completed on his skyscraper. He goes to the party that night concerned he's found that his wiring specifications have not been followed and that the building continues to develope short circuits. When the fire begins Michael O'Halleran is the chief on duty as a series of daring rescues punctuate the terror of a building too tall to have a fire successfully fought from the ground burns. Trivia Based on two novels: "The Tower" by Richard Martin Stern, and "The Glass Inferno" by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. After the success of The Poseidon Adventure, disaster was hot property and Warner Brothers bought the rights to film "The Tower" for $390,000. Eight weeks later Irwin Allen (of 20th Century Fox) discovered "The Glass Inferno" and bought the rights for $400,000. To avoid two similar films competing at the box office the two studios joined forces and pooled their resources, each paying half the production costs. In return, 20th Century Fox got the US box office receipts and Warners the receipts from the rest of the world. At Steve McQueen's insistence, he and co-star Paul Newman had to have exactly the same number of lines of dialogue in the script. Irwin Allen originally wanted Steve McQueen to play the part of building architect Doug Roberts. McQueen however, fought for and got the role of fire chief O'Halloran. The role of Doug Roberts went to Paul Newman. Paul Newman's and Steve McQueen's names are staggered in the opening credits, closing credits, and on the posters so that, depending on which way you read it (top to bottom or left to right), both appear to get top billing. This is known as "diagonal billing", This strategy was being worked on when Newman and McQueen almost co-starred together in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but McQueen eventually dropped out of the project and was replaced by the lesser known Robert Redford. Principal photography was completed on Sept. 11th 1974. Both novels were inspired by the construction of the World Trade Center in the early-1970s, and what could happen in fire in a skyscraper. In Richard Martin Stern's novel, "The Tower", the fictional 140-floor building was set next to the north tower of the World Trade Center. The climax of the novel was centered around a rescue mounted from the north tower of the World Trade Center. During filming an actual fire broke out on one of the sets and Steve McQueen found himself briefly helping real firemen put it out. One of the firemen, not recognizing McQueen, said to the actor, "My wife is not going to believe this." To this McQueen replied, "Neither is mine." Paul Newman did most of his own stunts, including climbing up and down the bent stairwell railing. Of the 57 sets built for the production, only eight remained standing when filming ended. According to Susan Flannery, 20th Century Fox refused Irwin Allen to direct all of The Towering Inferno. Irwin Allen Directed all the Action Sequences and John Guillerman was hired only to direct The Actors only for Non-Action sequences. There were a total of Four Film Units Shooting at the same time. The film has been revisited by structural engineers since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Box office The movie grossed $139,700,000 worldwide. Henry's copy Henry has the 1999 VHS of this movie from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It has no previews.